Life
by melodicSiren
Summary: Time passes, things change and people grow up. An epilogue of the series, based on observations of life. Little bit of ZaDr at the end, but easily ignored if that's not your thing. Cookies if you find the reference to another series!


AN: I had this idea for awhile, but I had no idea how to put it in words. I know the way this written is odd, but it's just me getting my thoughts into words, and sharing them for people's opinions. OPINIONS. NOT FLAMES.

-LINEBREAKHERE-

Time passes, things change, and people grow up. That's just how life works.

In the summer between grade three, Zim's first year on earth, and grade four, Dwicky returned. He apologised profusely for losing Dib's camera, saying that during his travels it had been programmed with an emotion chip, and was a very good listener. He ended up meeting another group of travelers who had a depressive robot with them. He ended up letting the robot keep the camera, as it was good company and someone for the robot to complain to without annoying it. Dib assured Dwicky that it was ok, and that he had plenty of other cameras to work with.

September rolled around, only to find that Dwicky was their new teacher, having gotten his degree long ago, but trying out being a councillor first. One girl asked him what had happened to Ms. Bitters, as she had been their teacher since primary. Mr. Dwicky had replied that she had passed on. It was true that her grave had been found behind the house of her son, but the strange part of it was that according to her son, she had died 15 years before hand. No one questioned it.

Dwicky turned out to be a great teacher. He knew what he was teaching, and he knew how to relate to the kids. He'd always had a parental side to him, making him kind and easy to work with. Which was why when Zim came into class one day quietly instead of yelling and speaking about himself proudly, he knew something was wrong. Pulling him back after class, Dwicky had asked him what happened. The response had had gotten was a chest full of crying alien, sobbing about lies and tall people and choked out questions with no answers. It took awhile to calm him down enough to speak understandably, but when he did, Dwicky found out everything. Deciding that he would have to do something, he went over to Zim's home that evening and called the Tallest to speak with them about Zim. As it turned out, they weren't really trying to be mean, and they did care about the smaller Irken's well being, but from a leader's point of view, Zim was too much of a hazard to keep around, with access to ammunition. Zim was emotional, impulsive, and proud with little self-restraint or ability to properly analyze a situation. This meant that in a war-like environment, he was a danger to himself and everyone around him. So they had sent him away, thinking that since he was like that at the time, that was the way he was, since all Irkens reach maturity very early. Dwicky explained that it seemed that Zim was still growing up, just more slowly than an average Irken.

They came to an agreement where the Tallest would come to visit when they had the time and Dwicky would watch over Zim for the rest of the time. Kind of like a shared custody situation. This seemed to work out well for everyone involved, and as time went by Zim began getting used to his new home, though for months he refused to call it that, still believing there had been a miss communication. That thought was quelled when the Tallest came for their first visit. After that Zim seemed more comfortable and accepted the truth.

Zim disguise changed as well. The first day of Middle school he showed up looking almost completely different than before, yet the same. He had used his technology to figure out a way to make his wig become a real part of his head and grow like real hair. He has fused himself with his PAK to cause less suspicion, Keep it from being broken, and it also gave him some resistance to water. It turned out the burning was from the electricity of the PAK conducting against the water on his skin. He had even been able to lighten his complexion. He was still a shade of green, but it was so light that it was hardly noticeable. He had made new contacts that where clear where a human's iris would be, to show his magenta eye color. They were also made of a different material then the old ones, so they were more comfortable to wear. Of course the only one who noticed this huge change was Dib; everyone else just thought it was a change from growing up, causing Dib to smack his head off the nearest table. Some girls notice the change, but not in a way that Zim liked. He blushed a tinge of blue every time he found a letter in his locker. Dib and Zim didn't fight as much after Zim stopped trying to take over the world, but there was still some tension there that would take a few years to dissipate.

High school began, and life continued. Dib had three close friends who also loved paranormal and fantastic things. Zim had stretched up because of the food he had started eating, and had become good at sports. He chatted with kids in his classes and hung out with them after school sometimes. Eventually things settled down for everyone involved in Zim's "invasion", and life was pretty simple. There were the occasional mishaps with lab equipment and supernatural beings, but other than that things were normal. Or as normal as things can be in a town with aliens dropping in every once and a while, people messing with highly dangerous chemicals and technology, demons and such running around with a few kids chasing them and haunting teachers.

It was on a fairly normal day where some interesting things took place. Dib had a pop quiz in Bio 12, which he was sure he aced, Dr. Membrane had invented a new type of toaster that packed the bread full of vitamins in a pattern of the users choosing, and Zim was waiting for Dib by the school gates. Dib and his friends came out of the door as they always did, laughing and carrying on about nothing in particular when one of Dib friends pointed Zim out to him. Dib turned to look at Zim, who nodded, then turned to his friends. One of which grinned and pushed him off the building's stairs towards the alien. Dib smiled back at them before running off to see what Zim wanted to talk about. Meeting at the gate, the two walked off together towards the park. The friend who had pushed Dib down the steps just continued to grin, while one of the others smirked and muttered "It took them long enough..." The third one was too busy leaning over the railing laughing to contribute anything to the conversation.

The two reached the park after walking for a minutes. They came to rest under a tree near the middle of the park. They sat there for awhile just chatting about the stupid stuff they did as kids and how things had changed since Zim had first arrived on earth. They were in the middle of reminiscing about the time Zim had enlarged the class hamster when he suddenly leaned over and pecked the other boy on the lips, then leaping up and running off, laughing. Dib was left under the tree, blushing lightly. But when Zim spun around and stuck his tongue out at him, he smiled, before the smile morphed into a smirk and he jumped up and gave chase to the alien boy. The words were the same as all those years ago, even though the context had changed.

"I'll get you Zim!"

"NEVER!"

Time passes and people grow up. However, the more things change the more they stay the same.


End file.
